Charley Varrick (1973)

****½

"When he runs out of dumb luck he always has genius to fall back on!"

 

Wow! Charley Varrick is a work of pure magic (no rhyme intended).

 

The film is basically about Charley Varrick (Matthau) and his friends who decide to rob a two-bit bank and split the small sum of money up between themselves. But after they get back and count the haul, they are shocked to discover $750,000 bagged up inside. So shocked in fact that Charley soon realises that this amount of money could not possibly have come from such a small bank and community and that it must belong to the mafia. How right he is too as the mafia involved hire a hitman to set out and retrieve the stolen cash. That man is Molly (Don Baker), a terrifying and menacing brick wall of a man.

 

All I kept thinking while watching this movie was how similar in style and mood it was to the Coen brothers film No Country For Old Men. The basic story is the same but the Coen's must have been so inspired that they felt they needed to bring something new to the table. I'd have a hard time splitting those two movies up though, I mean I absolutely adore No Country but this film was just so raw and unxpected.

 

"I allow very few men to speak to me in that tone. Few caucasians. And no nigras at all."

 

Matthau does what Matthau does best, and that is own the screen but whenever Joe Don Baker gets his say, it's all the Baker. He's absolutely frightening as the hitman, and it's surprising how little information he needs too to try and track down his man. He never needs to write any notes down and never needs to be told twice, he's just a trained killer, like a machine.

I believe it was my first 70's experience with the great Don Baker too, and a very pleasant (if not scary) one at that.

 

My favourite scene was where Molly visits Tom's Gun-Shop to accept some information. Molly starts asking a few questions and the old man (Tom) demands to be paid for his information. Molly doesn't like what he hears so he places one hand on the man's chest and pushes him and his wheelchair about 10 feet backwards into a pile of boxes. The old man drops his whiskey and falls to the floor and Molly stares at him and says "Now sit there, and start talking, with good will". It's out of this world, such a memorable and classic scene.

 

I might come back and change this film to a 5 star one. I'll definitely be looking forward to revisiting it anyway, it's a bona fide classic.

 

"You just keep throwing your feathers, mister, before I put you in the hospital."